How our kids can miraculously contribute to national savings and resource mobilization towards a better and brighter Pakistan! It is a test of the will, vision and vitality of people at the helm of banking affairs to revitalize school banking and initiate banking for the children of our slums, streets and countryside towards a better and brighter Pakistan. Imagine simple saplings blossoming into shady trees, ants crawling resolve seeing them home, bees' labourious toil ending up with sweet results, building bricks transforming into skyscrapers, employees' perseverance earning them promotion, students' hard work bringing them distinctions etc. As you sow, so shall you reap! Similarly, being encouraged, convinced and counselled by parents, teachers and bankers, our children can become miraculously responsible towards helping themselves, their families, their institutions and their country by developing a habit for savings contributing idealistically but immensely to the national cause for resource mobilization towards a brighter Pakistan.
A dream-come-true-reality
Whether it is kids of the elite or upper strata or the young ones of the middle-income group or offspring of the impoverished and the underprivileged or those kids rendered dropouts or escapists or the little ones labelled as street children, we can bank on our children's ability to save for a better and brighter Pakistan. For a change let us focus on the mass scale ability of our kids to earn and save. Let us for a moment think of a silver lining in the so-called curse of child labour. While child labour is difficult to abolish in a society of powerful vested interests, a blessing in disguise may be envisioned for our toiling and earning little folks. Children's skills development and utilization with better remuneration and recourse mobilization of their little earnings mean developing such healthy habits today that bring socio-economic stability tomorrow when the begging bowl is replaced with the dream-come-true-reality of such self-reliance that we continue to discuss in our rosy seminars. As the result of these tiny savings may not be seen overnight, it is the growth of a child's mindset towards simpler ways in savings known as economizing.
Those micro mindsets to meagerly earn yet positively save today mean happy and healthy returns at the personal, family, community and national level tomorrow. Be they street children laboring or kids of our agriculture business or cottage industry or little folks working as domestic servants, alluring bank incentives can positively transform even the tiniest, the least and the lowest amount into positive mindsets leading to a comparatively better morally, socially and financially rewarding future. Let the concept and habit of saving develop for the entire children of the country, irrespective of they being children of the elite or the upper strata or the children of the impoverished or the underprivileged, inculcating in them the spirit to save.
How to manage pocket money
Pocket money is the term associated with the money that one, especially a child or a student, acquires to meet what may include the miscellaneous expenses of life. Pocket money may be a daily, weekly or monthly amount given by his/her parents to be spent at free will and/or for a variety of purposes for example, buying a snack from the school/college canteen, purchasing a story book over the weekend, procuring a CD for the computer games, having ice cream or pizzas, etc. Whatever the nature of expenditure, children should know how to manage pocket money and make the most of it. Children need to be taught not to carry a big amount of money with themselves all the time. It is their money; they can do whatever they want with it. But when they carry a fat purse of cash all the time, they are tempted to buy on impulse.
Here they may be carried away by the advertising slogans or the magnetic appeal of the products you do not actually need. They should rather prefer to economize: maximum possible use of money you may allocate to spend on need or to enjoy, still saving some as and when the future demands. Every child gets little or big Eidi on Eid. Is Eidi meant only to be spent? It is meant to be spent and enjoyed indeed! But if you continue saving a bit of Eidi to be added to a little saving on pocket money or money gifts that you earn on your laurels, it will make a big amount to cater to your own needs. That is how children can contribute not only to their own well-being but to the welfare of the society through national savings or resource mobilization.
A test of will, vision and vitality
It's a test of the will, vision and vitality of men at the helm of banking affairs to revitalize school banking and initiate banking for the children of our slums, streets and countryside. It is a question of children's training program in skills oriented trades, deserved earnings, calculated spending, suitable savings and healthy recreation. It is a matter of corporate social responsibility, multinational companies and banking executives talking beyond charity about inculcating in children the spirit of savings and investment towards a better and brighter Pakistan.
(The writer is a contributor to media on education, social sector and corporate affairs. [email protected])
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